Alarm bells have been ringing around the neighborhood pretty much nonstop since July 13, when President Obama sat down to talk Middle East policy at the White House with a pack of leaders from a dozen American Jewish organizations.

The meeting was supposed to help buff up Obama’s relationship with the Jewish community, which is bubbling lately with resentment at the president’s aggressive peace-processing. By reaching out to the community’s customary spokesmen, he hoped to build rapport and perhaps recruit a few backers for his policies. Instead he unleashed a whirlwind of attacks against himself, his administration and the Jews who met with him.

The critics accuse Obama of unfairly singling out Israel by demanding a unilateral settlement freeze, without requiring reciprocal Palestinian concessions, and disregarding past American promises to permit some construction. They say he is trying to curry favor with the Arab world, breaking a long-standing presidential tradition of siding automatically with Israel. Some say he is threatening the important legacy of George W. Bush. I didn’t make that one up.

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If there is a substantive argument in all this, it’s the claim that Israel is being pressured for concessions while the Arab side is not. Obama himself conceded the point at that meeting. He’s now pressing Arab states for gestures to help Israelis get the medicine down. But freezing settlements doesn’t depend on that. Jerusalem is already committed to “freeze all settlement activity (including natural growth of settlements).” It’s written in black and white in President Bush’s road map, which Israel signed in 2003 — and which Avigdor Lieberman reaffirmed this past April 1 in his maiden Knesset speech as foreign minister. Israel was able to put off the freeze because the Palestinian Authority wasn’t honoring its commitment to crack down on terrorists. Now the Palestinians are cracking down, and Netanyahu is making up excuses.

As for Obama being the new Roosevelt, we should live so long. FDR, if memory serves, was the guy who defeated Hitler and saved the world, after the Japanese air force convinced congressional Republicans to let us join the war. If Obama has any tricks like that up his sleeve, bring ’em on.

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2 thoughts on “American So-Called Jews”

From what I can gather, Obama sat down with left-wing, liberal Jewish leaders, many of whom are not supporters of Israel. Among many other American Jews, there is a growing unease and dislike about Obama’s blatant hypocrisy re the Middle East.

Allow me to offer one example.

Recently, some illegal Arab squatters were evicted from a home in Jerusalem that belongs to Israeli Jews. The case has gone before some 15 judges, over a number of years. The Israeli Jews have the deeds to the house etc. They are the legal owners.

This sort of thing happens in all countries – but only when it’s in Israel does the international community suddenly start yelling in protest.

Here’s the key point, though: the Obama administration condemned the eviction publicly, in the form of Hilary Clinton.

Who was Clinton with *when* she condemned Israel for *legally* evicting ILLEGAL squatters…?

She was with a high ranking Jordanian – and as you may well know, Jordan BANS ANY JEWS from being citizens.

Now if that is not blatant hypocrisy, what is?

The fundamental problem with Obama’s demands of Israel is this: he’s happy to envisage a ‘Judenfrei’ Palestinian state. i.e. no Jews allowed there – BUT at the same time, he insists Israel must admit Palestinians.

You can’t have it both ways. What, Jews are only allowed to live in Israel, but Arabs and Palestinians are allowed to live in Israel AND the new Palestinian state AND the other 22 Muslim nations?

If you get a minute, take a look at this. I would greatly welcome any comments you might care to offer on it: